xc2xa71.1 Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns methods, apparatus and data structures for providing live agent assistance. More specifically, the present invention concerns methods, apparatus and data structures for invoking and establishing an audio, video, and/or data (e.g., text message) xe2x80x9ccallxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cconferencexe2x80x9d between a live agent and a customer in response to some event which may occur while the customer is browsing content on a network, such as the Internet for example.
xc2xa71.2 Related Art
Below, methods for providing customer service, as well as perceived shortcomings of such methods, are introduced. More specifically, Internet-based customer service and its perceived shortcomings are introduced in xc2xa71.2.1 below. Then, a system in which customers can access live agents from kiosks and its perceived shortcomings are introduced in xc2xa71.2.2. The discussion of these systems in this section is not, and should not be interpreted as, an admission that such systems are prior art.
xc2xa71.2.1 Internet-based Customer Service
The Internet has been successfully used to reduce the need for human customer service representative. That is, in many instances, customers can use the Internet to answer questions that they would otherwise present to a human customer service representative (also referred to as a xe2x80x9clive agentxe2x80x9d). However, the present inventors believe that in many instances, customers still would like to confer with (e.g., talk and/or see) a live agent. For example, a customer""s uncertainty may prevent them from consummating an on-line transaction. In such instances, it would be helpful to have a live agent address any concerns the customer has so that the customer will feel comfortable in consummating (or will be able to consummate) the transaction. Although a customer may call a live agent, conferencing over the telephone with a live agent while viewing web pages may be inefficient. Further, in some instances, a single telephone line is used for both Internet access and telephone service. Thus, conferencing over the telephone with a live agent is not possible when viewing web pages under such circumstances. The present inventors also believe that it would be helpful to have a live agent suggest a purchase or a transaction to potential customers. Finally, the present inventors believe that it would be helpful for the live agent to have some customer information up-front, at or shortly after the start of the conference, so the customer does not have to provide the live agent with information already provided over the Internet (for example, via forms) or available from another source. As will be demonstrated in the following, the present invention may be used to achieve these advantages of providing a live agent to assist customers.
Provisional patent application serial No. 60/151,793, entitled xe2x80x9cInteractive Multimedia System for Use with Kiosks and Internet Based Customersxe2x80x9d, and filed on Aug. 31, 1999, discloses a multimedia call center (or xe2x80x9cMCCxe2x80x9d) in which live agents can assist customer end users at kiosk stations. It is expected that such kiosks will be located in areas open to the public, and preferably areas with high traffic such as airports, malls, grocery stores, train stations, bus terminals, etc. In such a system, a live agent can help a customer or potential customer complete a transaction. However, the present inventors believe that in addition to providing live agents to customers at kiosks, it would be helpful to permit live agents to assist customers at any terminal, such as a home computer connected to the Internet for example.
The MCC described in provisional patent application serial No. 60/151,793 can be supplemented so that the same live agents that help customers at kiosks (or, alternatively, other live agents), can assist customers or potential customers in completing a transaction over any terminal (such as a home computer for example) connected with a network (such as the Internet for example). Internet customers are provided with video, audio and/or other data (e.g., text messages) from live agents with which they interact over the Internet. The live agent can lead the customer through various web pages using a web browser (as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/487,049, entitled METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING AGENT CONTROLLED SYNCHRONIZED BROWSING AT A TERMINAL, by M. Reza Shaffie and Sankar Subramanian, filed Jan. 19, 2000 and incorporated herein by reference), enter information, answer questions and confirm orders. The live agent may receive textual inputs from the customer via the customer""s key board, selection inputs from the customer via a pointing device, such as a mouse for example, audio input from the customer via a microphone, and/or video information from the customer via a camera. Even if the customer does not have a microphone or other audio input means at their premises, they can still receive audio information from the live agent. Similarly, even if the customer does not have a video camera or other video input means at their premises, they can still receive video information from the live agent. Accordingly, as used below, a xe2x80x9ccallxe2x80x9d or a xe2x80x9cconferencexe2x80x9d may include two-way audio/video communications, two-way audio, one-way video communications, two-way audio communications, text messaging (e.g., xe2x80x9cchatxe2x80x9d window) communications, or any combination of audio, video, and/or data (e.g. text messaging) communications.
The present invention may be used to establish a conference between a customer at a customer terminal and a live agent at an agent station, by (a) accepting a call request from the customer terminal, (b) requesting that an available live agent take the call request, (c) when a live agent becomes available to take the call request, passing customer information to the agent station associated with the available live agent, and (d) establishing a conference from the agent station associated with the available live agent to the customer terminal.
The conference may be an audio-video conference. The audio-video conference may be compliant with the H.323 standard.
The call request may generated in response to an event sensed by an API which was previously downloaded to the customer terminal from a web server.
The call request may be generated in response to a trigger event. The trigger event may be a customer request for a live agent, adding an item to a virtual shopping cart, adding items having a total purchase prices of more than a predetermined threshold to a virtual shopping cart, removing an item from a virtual shopping cart, dwelling at a certain web page for more than a predetermined length of time, rendering certain content, rendering a certain sequence of content, filling out a form, or issuing a particular command.
The customer information may include an Internet protocol address of the customer terminal, a video capability of the customer terminal, and/or a browser type used by the customer terminal.